Bonny Doon School students wait patiently for Amgen riders

BONNY DOON - Staff and students at Bonny Doon Elementary School got in on the Amgen action late Monday morning, filling their time with bike-related activities as they eagerly awaited the Amgen Tour of California.

The festivities began at 11:30 a.m., about three hours before the teams came roaring down Pine Flat Road en route to the seemingly treacherous Jamison Creek Road. The connector road between Bonny Doon and Boulder Creek was viewed by many as the most likely site of a crash, but instead, at least one spill happened directly in front of the school.

A racer, possibly distracted by the encouraging shouts and screams of students lined up against the chain link fence, lost his balance and fell to the side of the road, creating a domino effect that ultimately toppled at least a dozen other riders. But in the blink of an eye, the riders stood up and dusted themselves off, and within minutes, the pack was back on its way.

The school's three-hour "bike rally" event was organized by John West, whose children attend the school.

"This is the first year we decided to embrace (the race) and have a bike rally," he said. Race organizers ensured West that riders would pass by the school well before the last bell rang, and told the school to "go ahead and leave your school open."

The racers were a bit behind schedule, but instead of complaining, the students entertained themselves by cheering anyone they happened to see. Would-be racers chugging up the hill in the hours ahead of the Tour, police officers on motorbikes, a man across the street washing his car, even a pedestrian, all were cheered enthusiastically as they came under the collective eye of the student body.

The event started with an assembly, where students listened to Justin Robinson, a pro racer himself, talk about what it's like to participate in a race, the different parts of a bicycle, bike safety and hand signals.

Afterward, students gathered in the school field for lunch, then spent the next hour participating in various sprints and criterions on bicycles they brought from home to school. Nearby, a couple of representatives from Another Bike Shop in downtown Santa Cruz worked under a shaded white canopy, looking over some of the bikes and providing free tune ups.

Julie Robinson, a 9-year-old third-grader and Robinson's daughter, won first place in the girl's division of the sprint. Unlike her dad, she has no professional aspirations, though she said she enjoys casual, father-daughter bike rides at Wilder Ranch and along the trails at UC Santa Cruz.

The Amgen race, Robinson said, "is not something you see every day, like baseball or football or basketball. You don't get major cycling events in the states. It's good to see something out there besides mainstream sports, and these guys are out there doing it."